effluents into the Northumberland Strait by Northern Pulp is a topic of
much debate, with some arguing all will be fine, while others, many
fishermen amongst them, fear that it will not be safe at all.
Folks engaged in that debate may find an early 2000s water quality study
of the St. Croix Estuary of interest. The St Croix Estuary, a body of
water separating Maine and New Brunswick, located at the western mouth
of the Bay of Fundy, has been the recipient of effluents of a local
paper mill since 1965.
Art MacKay, a now retired biologist,
is one of the authors of the 2003 study of the relative environmental
health of the St. Croix Estuary over the the last 400 years. The study
is part historic research, and part data collected in the early 2000s
through fieldwork.
No matter what creatures you look at,
be they sponges, anemones, jellyfish, crustaceans, urchins, sand
dollars, and what have you, the study concludes that by and large all
have suffered a decline, although the exact extent and cause of that
decline is often difficult to pinpoint.
The report points to a pulp mill in Woodland, Maine, as one of the two main causes of ongoing water pollution in the estuary.